Last chance to have your say on the CITB’s future

Questions are being asked over a consultation exercise to decide the future of the CITB with just over a month before the crucial vote is counted.

The CITB and its supporting trade bodies are coming under fire over their attempts to reach out to contractors.

The skills body has to gain the support of 51% of levy payers to keep its right to raise cash from contractors for another three years.

Balfour Beatty boss Leo Quinn has already said he will vote against before the consultation finishes at the end of September.

And the Home Builders Federation has also indicated its members may vote for an end to the CITB.

Trade federations are crucial to the CITB’s future because their block votes hold huge sway.

Critics fear some trade bodies are not listening to their members properly.

Others are issuing confusing and over complicated survey questions rather than a simple “yes or no” format on support for the CITB.

Ian Anfield, Managing Director of Hudson Contract said: “For too long the CITB’s levy raising powers have been maintained without any real scrutiny or debate.

“The housebuilders are to be applauded for sticking their neck out and standing up for their members.

“We hope this is a wake-up call to all the other federations – you need to consult carefully and represent truthfully. Anything less and the whole process will be exposed as a sham.

“All federated employers should be writing to their federations and demanding that their opinion is counted. There may never be a more opportune moment to have your say and bring about real reform.”

Hudson has produced its own video on the CITB vote which has been viewed more than 30,000 times on Youtube.

Anfield said: “People are definitely interested and animated when it comes to CITB.”

One trade body chief said: “We aren’t giving our members guidance – we are letting them make up their own minds.

“But that isn’t the case everywhere with a lot of not so subtle persuasion being put on firms or many others simply being ignored.

“It’s going to a be a very close call but if the CITB does go then their isn’t a lot of thought it seems at the moment being put into what will replace it.”

Build UK has been surveying its members and those in its affiliated federations.

But the industry’s biggest trade body has been running a low key campaign often relying on social media and articles in small circulation trade magazines.

The Build UK consultation also finishes on September 4 – nearly a full month earlier than necessary.

Source: Construction Enquirer

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